Tuesday, February 24, 2015

In the chart below you can conclude that there are currently 66 public bicycle systems operating in Spain.Since the first experience in 2003 have been implemented in all 130 systems, thus surviving half of them.The largest increase in the number of systems occurred between 2007 and 2010, with 2009 the year of further growth.The peak was reached in 2010 with 100 systems in operation around the country.In 2010 the number of systems started down due to closures and openings substantially reduced.The largest net decrease was recorded in 2012. The downward trend that began in 2010 continues today. In view of these results it can be said that public bicycle in Spain has left behind a phase of initial boom.Possible causes closure of public bicycle systems in recent years are: 1) overconfidence in his introduction;2) poor planning of the costs associated with the system, mainly its stage of exploitation and maintenance and redistribution;and 3) the accentuation of financing difficulties because of the economic crisis. Read more here in English and here in Spanish.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

‘Bicycling Around The World’ celebrates bike travel and culture around the globe. In 2010, photographer Paul Jeurissen and Grace Johnson set off on a multi-year bicycle tour covering four continents. Wherever we go, we search out bike culture, dramatic landscapes and remote places. So come pedal with us through the icy Himalayas, the barren Pamir highway, tropical East Africa and the chaos of Dhaka in search of unique cycling images. We also show you glimpses of bicycle culture via painted rickshaws, overloaded cargo bikes and even two wheelers piled high with cotton candy. By the end of this book, we hope you’ll agree that the world is best viewed from a bike saddle. Get the eBook here!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

The growth of bike share programs is gaining momentum in the US. But this growth is absolutely dwarfed by the explosion of bike share programs in China over the last couple of years. The country now has more than 400,000 bike share bikes in operation across dozens of cities with programs, with the vast majority installed since 2012. To put this in perspective, there are an estimated 822,00 bikes in operation around the world — so China has more bikes than all other countries combined. The individual country with the next-highest number of bikes, France, has just 45,000. Here are the 15 countries with more than 3,000 bikes in operation, with data coming from the Bike-sharing World Map, a database maintained by Russell Meddin and Paul DeMaio.Early on, most bike share programs were in Europe. The French town of Rennes pioneered the first computerized system in 1998, and as late as 2008, only a single system existed outside of Europe (Washington DC's). For years, Paris had the largest system. Read more here.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The university city of Tilburg in the south of the Netherlands is one of the many Dutch cities in which the central station area is under extensive reconstruction. Because that reconstruction involved building a new underpass at the location of the bicycle parking facility, that facility had to be relocated. So a temporary facility was constructed on an abandoned platform, originally built for postal trains, but that was also used as a car parking area later. Tilburg’s central station is used by 30,000 travellers per day. In 2020 that is expected to have risen to 40,000. To make the station future proof, two new underpasses under the existing and remaining monumental station hall from 1965 will be built. One for train passengers and a public one for people walking and cycling. That last underpass will connect to Willem II-straat. The passage will be 13 metres wide and 3 metres high. The reconstruction of the station is taking place right now and it is expected to be finished mid-2016. When the station was built, this was where the postal trains were loaded and unloaded. But when the postal trains were abolished it was turned into a car park. The car park has now been transformed into a bicycle parking facility. Read on here.